Duffin Station Malt House Challenge

Duffin Station is Illinois’ only commercially operating malter, and they use only Illinois grown barley, wheat and rye. Join us on April 26th when 11 home and professional brewers present beer made using their 2row, wheat and rye malt. Talk to the malter and ask question. Learn about the malt process. Drink beer.

I will be bringing an IPA made with 10# of 2row. Since you warned us the yield was going to be low, I added 2# of 2 row. I usually add 3/4# of sugar to my IPAs to dry them out. I set beersmith to 65% efficiency. I was low about 1/2 a point on my OG. It is dry hopping currently and will be kegged this weekend. I will let you know more in the coming weeks about how it turned out.

My friend Erik, who took the other 10# you gave me will be bringing a NEIPA. His results were similar. I believe he was a point low on his OG. He also added 2# of 2 row and 3/4# of sugar to his.

Looking for a higher level of calcium chloride for a softer mouthfeel, which I think I achieved.

Hops: 0.5oz Columbus 60 minutes, then 1 ounce each Citra, Ekuanot, Eureka, Jarrylo, and Mosaic 20min whirlpool at 165°. Two stage dry hop at 36 hours and day 4 (final gravity) using the same hop bill ( 2/3 ounce each at day 2, then 1/3 ounce each on day 5).

FG 1.012 on day 6 for cold crash.

Kegged day 8. OG 1.050 (5% ABV).

Mouthfeel is very soft, hops blend well but probably too much, to the point of being indistinct. The SRM is about a point darker than I wanted, so I am wondering if the Duffin malt was malted a bit darker than a comparable 2 row. Predicted SRM was 4.78 and the result is a bit closer to 7-8. Aroma is not there yet, probably since it is still carbonating.

Overall my efficiency was in the high 60s, where I normally hit 80-82% brewhouse efficiency. Mash was five step infusion, with rests at actual temperatures of 119, 130, 141, 149, and 155, plush mash out.

Total mash time was 2:15.

Happy with the beer, generally. My first NEIPA, so still learning.

Needs more hops, and less hop varieties.I was in Boston and visited Alchemist in January, so I have had NEIPAs on the brain lately. Next one will be bigger and better – I am still a little worried about oxidation, but this one is a good start.

I got started at a later date than I’d wanted, especially since I decided to go with buckwheat as my base grain. Brewing on 3-22-18 didn’t leave much wiggle room for my process to have beer ready by 4-26-18, which ends with bottle conditioning.

Oh yeah. Buckwheat. Not my wisest impulse. But like any fully committed half-ass impulse of mine, I griped about it and then went ahead and followed through anyway.

My recipe included 4lbs of malted buckwheat, 2lbs of flaked corn, and a pound of light Belgian candi sugar added at the last 15 minutes of the boil. It was a recipe someone found for me on the net.

Mashing was an adventure. A four hour adventure. After adding 2 gallons of water, the mash was held for 120 minutes at 163°F with an addition of 13ml of SEBAmyl BAL100, an alpha-amylase enzyme formulated to help liquify starches and break them down to size. This was followed by a step down (yes, down) in temp to 148°F and held for another 120 minutes with an addition of SEBAmyl L alpha-amylase formulated to produce dextrins and maltose.

Small note here: buckwheat is actually a pseudo grain and high in protein. Very high in protien. The result was a semi-gelatinous liquid that made first runnings from a high percentage rye grain bill look like weak chicken broth by comparison. The .25 pound of rice hulls used initially (my best guess; the recipe didn’t specify a quantity) struggled to keep the mash flowing and lost that battle about half way through the transfer.

Enter 3.5 gallons of sparge water and another .25 pound of rice hulls. The additional water and rice hulls did a world of good. Everything after this point in the process from draining the tun to boil was uneventful…until after the boil.

Our ground water is a good 40-45°F cold, so the wort chiller took the wort down from just off the boil to about 67°F in 12-15 minutes. But…no massive cold break occurred. It’s almost like the proteins decided that clumping was something other proteins do, so piss off Mr. Brewer Man.

Obviously, buckwheat is a total dick.

Target gravity was 1.058. The measured OG was well within margin of weirdness parameters at 1.053 given my never having done an all grain gluten-free beer before using a random internet recipe and instructions before. And a weird-ass four hour mashing schedule including xenogenic enzymatic assistance.

I managed to win the Duffin Station efficiency lottery inspite of myself and the Lovecraftian madness. Yay?

Final analysis: All grain gluten-free brewing is not brewing as we know it. I have no idea how this will taste. Pray for me.

Abstract: For 10 lbs of Duffin Station 2 Row in 4.5 gal of strike water, yielded 3.75 gal of 14.1 Bx (1.05496) wort. I brewed this with my Wauconda community well water: 96 Ca, 58 Mg, 12 Na, 36 SO4, 35 Cl, 500 HCO3 I used 8 ml of lactic acid (88%) in 4.5 gal of strike water. Normally I’d probably use a thicker mash with 100% 2 row to get a better pH. My 1.8 qt to lb ratio resulted in me getting a tad high 5.63 pH which probably didn’t help achieve the best possible efficiency. But not crazy high.

The usual 2 Row PPG figure is 37. Based on this PPG, I ended up getting 66.85% efficiency in conversion. I usually average about 83% in a wide variety of malt grists, but the grouping is fairly tight (80-90%). Based on my extract readings, the PPG for this 2 Row could be a little lower than the other base malts I’ve tried. I use a lot of Vienna (35) and Pils (37 ppg) as base malts that contribute to my system’s average.

Overall, I’m glad I got a chance to try this malt out. I would totally try it out again, and it is especially cool to brew something that was malted in-state. Even though I put some Australian hops into it. It fermented out into nice and clean little 3.5% ultra light pale ale. Hoppy, but nice